Borinquen Made2026-06-04 · Economy and politics
Gabriella Boffelli: the federal House approves 26.2 billion for USDA and FDA
On June 4, 2026, from Washington, the executive director of the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration, Gabriella Boffelli, reports that the federal House of Representatives approved the appropriations measure for the Department of Agriculture, the FDA, and related agencies for fiscal year 2027. The package, according to La Fortaleza, would assign 26.2 billion dollars to USDA and the FDA. It now goes to the United States Senate.
For Puerto Rico, the release highlights 3,056,754,000 dollars for the Nutritional Assistance Program, a rise of more than 77.8 million. At the national level it lists, among others: WIC, 8,000,000,000; school lunches, 18,796,436,000; school breakfast, 6,972,613,000; Summer Food Service, 943,296,000; TEFAP commodities, 481,500,000; TEFAP administrative, 75,000,000; Commodity Supplemental Food Program, 460,000,000; Summer EBT benefits, 3,424,588,000; Summer EBT administrative, 246,570,000. Those lines are national. La Fortaleza says Puerto Rico benefits through implementation on the island; it does not break out how much of each arrives here, except PAN and the USDA tropical research station in Mayagüez, 3.27 million.
It also names Smith-Lever, Hatch Act, McIntire-Stennis, and the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program, with impact on institutions such as the Universidad de Puerto Rico. Gabriella Boffelli attributes the result to technical work in Washington with Governor Jenniffer González Colón and state agencies. The release does not publish the floor vote total or a Senate calendar.
The same June 4, La Fortaleza covers three works in the west. This piece is federal nutrition and agriculture appropriations, not paving or the plant. The PAN increase is not used to declare a household count. What remains is the 26.2 billion, the 3,056,754,000 for PAN, and the 3.27 million for Mayagüez.
The reader who wants the text of the measure or the House debate has the La Fortaleza URL. This is not original reporting.